Yahoo E-Commerce Program Highlights the Best Online Merchants

Yahoo is giving online businesses the chance to easily show shoppers what they're good at. / Credit: Online business image via Shutterstock

Yahoo is making it a little easier for online businesses to stand out from the crowd.

This week, the company unveiled their Yahoo Live Store badge program, which is a new way for online merchants to showcase their achievements, gain shopper confidence and promote their most popular products. The program gives online businesses the ability to post badges on their websites that highlight their best qualities.

"Real-time data from tens of thousands of eligible sites across more than 30 store categories allows us to determine which stores are the top performing with respect to repeat visitors, quickest time to checkout, engagement, and more," Rajat Mukherjee, head of e-commerce for Yahoo Small Business, wrote on the company's blog. "Using this data, we've created a set of awards that merchants — both large and small — can highlight to potential customers."

The current awards include Engaged Visitors, Loyal Following, Top Destination, Pro Seller, Easy Shopping and Secure Checkout, which is available to all Yahoo stores. The badges appear on the lower corner of the merchant site, and when a visitor hovers over them, the panel expands to reveal more information about the store.

"In addition to awards, the Live Store badge highlights top-selling products from the online store," Mukherjee wrote. "This feature can help drive better discovery of popular items that consumers want."

In order to start using the badges, both Yahoo and non-Yahoo merchants must install the Live Web Insights platform. Once the platform is installed, online merchants can incorporate the badges into their website design with one click.

Since some awards may be calculated within store categories, Yahoo recommends that online businesses update their store category in the Live Web Insights store settings. Online businesses can sign up for the badge program by visiting the Yahoo Live Store's website.

Chad Brooks is a Chicago-based freelance writer who has nearly 15 years experience in the media business. A graduate of Indiana University, he spent nearly a decade as a staff reporter for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, covering a wide array of topics including, local and state government, crime, the legal system and education. Following his years at the newspaper Chad worked in public relations, helping promote small businesses throughout the U.S. Follow him on Twitter.